Rumours have been escalating about a potential change of owner at Villa Park. Energy drink giants Red Bull have admitted that they are considering buying a Premier League club. Names such as Newcastle and Everton have been thrown around, but it’s Aston Villa that have now been added to the list. Former Villa boss Gerard Houllier is head of global soccer for Red Bull and he has a say in any future purchases from Red Bull.
Randy Lerner has been received lots of stick in regards to his owner ship of Aston Villa and the lack of investment over the years. This would surely change under Red Bull, the company owns over 15 different sports teams including a very successful Formula 1 team and football teams in America, Austria and Ghana.
However, when Red Bull bought FC Salzburg in 2005, the team has lost it’s history and has become a new club with no history. The team has undergone massive management changes, and staff changes but to this day, fans are unhappy.
Would fans accept this? Is it worth changing ‘Red Bull Aston Villa’s’ History for a possible brighter future? Aston Villa would definitely receive that much needed cash injection but it does come with a cost. You are selling your self to a drink-company. The stadium name would change, a long with the clubs colours and badge. But I’m certain it will result in success. If Red Bull spent the time to develop their football team, I reckon it has the potential to be as successful as their Formula 1 team.
Good god Adam, I hope to god that won’t happen, yes we need an input of that magnitude in cash but change of name, no way, change of not having our history, no way. You know what I would walk away from the game because of it not being my club anymore, I think I would become a Nuneaton town supporter by buying off the club. Please don’t let it happen.
Would be a dream come true for me for several reasons:
1) We’d be rid of Lerner and Lamberk, cause for huge celebration alone
2) We would be associated with an ambitious, driven, worldwide brand
3) We’d be part of the RB network, hence attracting better quality in terms of players, managers, technical staff, etc.
4) A re branding could make our stale club fresh and relevant again
5) The likelihood of success would be 10 x greater + than the misery and mediocrity we have now
If only this was serious and true, I would let RB do whatever they want. But its practically a zero chance, such a shame. I’d love to see Red Bull Villa at the Red Bull Park because I think they’d give us a team to be proud of, rather than the constant shame we are subjected to now.
Agree mate it’s no coincidence how well the browns are doing now Lerners fucked off. Quicker he goes the better IMO though can’t see it happening for at least 5 years.
oohahh/ Belcs .. .. lol! lots and lots rhetoric.
but seriously what are you doing here? is it not time to call it a day. Get that new jersey of whoever gives balotelli or ibrahimovic their next 200k weekly wage.
lets revisit those points again
1) because getting rid of lerner and lambert, is a good enough reason to do anything and accept anything lol.
2)Like Mcdonalds or durex? what about IBM or Blockbuster? I would like to know what the commercial viability and the market share/ brand recognition of a shareholder/profit driven enterprise has to do with a football club?
what are the correlations exactly? ..
what is the Purpose of Aston Villa football club? what are its principles ?
what is the purpose of Red Bull GmbH? i think it will center around the profit word. and by that i mean actual profit that a business needs to survive or justify investment. not the as yet conspiracy profits that every published account for Aston villa since Lerners take over has failed to show.
Did you mean the current day Cleveland browns or do you mean the now baltimore ravens? … If the Cleveland browns fans hated their former owner that much how did they feel about the owner before then ?
Be careful with your comparisons to north american franchises. A north american franchise is not beholden to its fans. if they don’t attend enough games or if they don’t make enough profit for their owners they can move cities and names and identities in a year or less. They have .. and they do. its happed over a dozen times in every major competition in north america.
They also can’t be relegated, they have salary caps, no transfer fees and have a draft system in place where by the lowest finishing team gains an advantage with finishing last. Why are you so eager to compare us to that?
But if that sounds like your cup of tea, then rejoice.
The Cleveland browns have won 4 and lost 4 this year. if losing as many games as you win is your take on excellence you should know we are currently on won 4 and lost 5 .. a change of name, Kit, colours, “brand” and soul and overwriting 139 years of history through a red bull buyout is the ideal solution. and whats more .. its 10 times greater the chance!**
**may not be 10 times greater chance of success
3) what is the RB network? what excellent staff from Austria the us or the formula one team could transition seamlessly to Villa park or the red Bull pit arena of wing giving- whatever it would be called.
how many champions leagues have the red bull teams won ? how premierships .. how many leagues with 4 or 5 other billionaire owners have they successfully competed?
4) freshness .. brand ….relevance .. did you study marketing or have you been watching a whole load of entourage.
I prefer things like history, pride in the name of a great club and my club will always be relevant to a villa fan. I would not trade either for a better market share for red Bull Energy drinks
5) i understand your problem with mediocrity i don’t like it either, what i don’t get is your willingness to cheapen any glory should we escape our mid table status.
you would let red bull do anything for a club to be proud of … why bother supporting villa then?
If you would let anything happen then there 4/5 teams in the prem that are winning to trophies to be proud of .. if you were willing to trade the entire identity of this club to make it a new, relevant completely unrecognizable entity and global brand.
why not just save yourself the hassle and do that now .. just pick another club and support it? Balotelli and Ibrahimovic have a lot of letters though so be prepared to fork out for that new shirt.
Well said Colonius….great way of summing it up mate!
Fair point and your obviously happy with mediocrity over success I’m not. I still support Villa regardless as it’s in my DNA too. That dosnt mean to say I’m happy with the current situation. Yes we would attract mercenaries but will also attract class players to we can shop at Harrods rather than primary. Would really prefer Kozac over ibramovich ffs!! RB have been successful in formula one they are winners but obviously it dosnt mean we will succeed with the. It just means we have a million percent better chance. Yes we will be brand Red Bull but so what we all know we are Aston Villa and always will be. We are not a franchise so can’t just be moved like in USA. There is no reason to move anyway as there is potential to extend VP to over £50k and we get players like ibrahimovich we will sell out every game anyway. We always sell out when we play UTD. Why? Because it’s Utd and even armchair villa fans go to see the likes of RVP and Rooney etc they are not really co I g to watcgpph Villa more like having a wank fest over utd. If we want to move forward which most fans want to see and be globally recognised over the world and see Asians in villa shirts then this is how it’s got to be. We have to accept that if we don’t do this we will be even further behind the top teams. Teams like Southampton are moving forward and are a better team than us now. This is just wrong! Lerner is taking the piss and has to go NOW!! Fwiw though I can’t see us being taken over by them anyway but if it happened I and tge majority of fans would welcome them with open arms.
Try reading it (quote) “i understand your problem with mediocrity i don’t like it either”
And what do we become the next Man City (not possible with the Fair Play)? or the next QPR?
It is possible red bull would sponser vp at £100m per year or whatever which gets round ffp rules. Like man city have done with etihad. As we are not in Europe it dosnt matter if we breach ffp anyway
They’re bollox, read my earlier post.
Fair play are simply a tool to preserve the status quo.
Exactly so the only way a team like us can compete is to spend zillions. Like it or not it’s tge way forward
For me this Red-Bull thing is just what it is a load of Bull they are not going to want a club that as a crowed capacity of less than fifty thousand and another thing Birmingham is not an attractive enough City for a a global brand such as Red-Bull to have a football club no matter what our history is so think this is just a pipe dream.As i have said we the Villa are on the road to nowhere and that,s fact not fiction.
A successful villa in the past has averaged home crowds of just over 40,000 under mon so a team that has a real chance of succeeding would easily get 50,000 as long as stadium capacity is extended. Admittedly the extra 10,000 fans would be plastic supporters but if you look at chekski and city they only average 40,000 as well even though city have a bigger stadium.
Congratulations on the reunion Terry!
Red Bull Villa my arse. Awful prospect whatever way you look at it.
Ooahh, your spelling is atrocious mate.
id be getting a season ticket at solihull moors
Think it’s bollox. Just a rehash of the “Dubai consortium” “Saudi Royal Family” rumours that surface every now and then. We had our big takeover and all the optimism that brought and we blew it As for Red Bull branding of the team you can’t do it. Total Network Solutions did it in Wales and were forced to change the name. Stadium naming is a different matter.
Would I want it though? Probably not. I don’t find it exciting either. I think my expectations have been lowered to the point where mid table mediocrity is all I look for
Although the investment and ambition would be great it just wouldn’t be worth it, if we ended up like salzberg then what would be the point? We would no longer be aston villa, the stadium name being changed i could stomach as its the only way around the ffp but to change the colours name and badge is taking it too far, i just couldn’t support the red bulls! We might as well go and support man utd or man city because i would consider them more of a club than the red bulls. So i would like a red bull takeover but only if they changed the stadium name and invested a lot of money and that’s it!
Id rather become a bluenose than have this happen…..Ye I said it..!!!
One problem with any takeover rocketing us (or any other club out side the present footballing cartel) up with the footballing elite – The UEFA Fair Play, the rules put in place by the the present incumbents of the so called Champions League to stop any other club from doing a Man City gatecrashing ‘their party’.
Don;t know why people are worrying as it;s not going to happen Lerner will never sell the goose that laid the golden egg,and we are just not attractive enough.
TJ surely there’s a contradiction there? How can Villa be an unattractive proposition but at the same time be a golden egg?
I really hope I am dead before this happens…Its fucking unthinkable. Its about time Prince William, Tom Hanks, David Cameron and Nigel Kennedy had a whip round for this once illustrious club…Red Bull****…… i’d rather remarry the missus, I cant put it any clearer than that!
WTF is the footballing world coming too?…. keeping the name Aston Villa is far more important than the CL will ever be to me….
Langfordvilla we would have to get Giddy to change his new football team he’s just bought in Kiddy to Aston Villa FC. Fuck um no way would fans stand for that.
Sorry Langford I’m sick of our great club being subjected to mediocre dross every year with nothing to look forward to but avoiding relegation. It’s bad for us and bad for the midlands to have a shite club. I am old school like you supported villa in the old div 3 watched us win EC etc but times have changed other than a huge investment by a soulless corporation or oil money there is no way on the planet that we will ever be able to compete at the highest level again. It’s sad but true.
I couldnt give a flying fuck….I would prefer to watch Aston Villa in the Erdington and District League Division 7 than Red Bull Bollocks in the CL…..that would mean absolutely fuck all to me!
But surely the whole ethos of supporting a team is to see good players at least challenging for stuff. We are a second city club not Wigan. Why shouldn’t we buy success like utd and Chelsea etc we are already being left behind by teams like Southampton ffs. I would love to support a successful villa for once I’m sick to death of Lerner’s small club mentality and all tge media hyping on about Manchester Liverpool and London. Time for a new order and that should start with us. Our fans deserve success after turning up for years watching mediocre dross the majority of time.
If we thought the appointment of McLeish was bad for the club – a Red Bull takeover would absolutely kill the club as we know it.
The Red Bulls cannot be compared to other rich owners – Saudi, Russian, American – in the league today. They are a brand, not an individual, and with that you buy into the whole marketing setup. For any club, not only Villa, if the Red Bulls takeover that means… a new name, colors, kits, and stadium re-named. Could most fans live with new red and white colors? Being renamed the Red Bull Villa? Or the very worse go to games at the new Red Bull Stadium? For me, absolutely not. To be honest I can’t see it happen, but I’m a bit surprised some would actually support this deal.
We are more likely to be taken over by Carson yeung than red bull knowing our luck. Reports state quite clearly they only want a London or merseyside team as Liverpool or Everton wouldn’t need much investment to challenge for CL and neither would a team like spurs. Whereas we need major surgery to compete in top four again. They would get rid of lamberk keep Benteke and the rest of the dross would be replaced over a 3 year period bar maybe Guzan and Delph. We would be able to compete for world class players also for first time ever. Yes we would have to sell our sole but ‘villa’ the brand would be massive and we would be a globally supported team with millions of plastic fans like utd. This is the trade off do we keep our identity and be nothing more than a bottom 6-8 club going nowhere but mediocre dross or do we sell our soul to a soulless corporation like RB and become a superstar team that the media suddenly start brown nosing to and us being able to watch world class players like Ronaldo at vp every week. Unfortunately if villa are ever to be successful again there is no other way.
It should be said Villa are already a global brand, and building upon it every season. The club is already making strides in the American market, let alone Asia. Although almost no one can compete with the marketing of Man Utd, Barcelona, Real Madrid.
I agree about Carson Yeung, which is more the reason to give Lerner a break. We all agree he’s made mistakes along the way, but at the very least he deserves praise for cherishing Villa’s history. Something of a dying quality in today’s game, ie Cardiff changing colors, Newcastle’s sponsorship fiascos, and Blackburn ownership as a whole.
You kind of hit on my point, but I am afraid ‘Villa’ the brand would be no more. ‘Red Bull’ the company and brand might do just fine. Unlike individuals who are usually in it for the return on investment, Red Bull has shown time and time again that their main focus is marketing and expanding their brand. Any conflict with that message would be replaced, in this hypothetical case, Villa’s identity as it is today. Yes, a Red Bull investment in theory would be an improvement on our current spending, but by no means would it guarantee success. Looking at the table today, I know it’s early still, but Spurs sit 7th, Man City 8th after spending how much this summer? Screw Ronaldo.
What I care about is the things that drew me to Aston Villa in the first place. A team rich in history who focus’ on building and playing the right way. I’d rather we build slow and applaud the effort than sell our history for the mercenary few and a dream that still may never come. For me, even winning the league isn’t worth giving up our identity for.
I take your point marvin. Though I was recently in New York and no one had ever heard of villa ffs. They all knew Chelsea because they went to see them play in a big friendly tournament in the summer. And they all know utd. Even west ham was mentioned but not us.
New York has a supporters club which meets every game in Midtown, but I know what you mean about exposure. Although it is good to remember the average person on the street still knows very little about the sport, let alone the EPL. National coverage of the EPL is still relatively new and most games are still only available through cable provider. Nevertheless, the American market is growing and interest in the EPL has grown substantially over the past few seasons. It is starting to be become ripe for the picking and Villa have made some waves – the American preseason helped and I can only imagine the current deals with Time Warner Cable in California will help expand the clubs exposure this season. I just hope the club continues to show interest. In a perfect world, it would be great if the club could strike a deal with one of the major American airlines to play Villa highlights as part of their in-flight entertainment.
What’s even more embarrasing is we have an American owner who can’t be arsed to promote us in his own country Ffs. Says it all
lol meanwhile the fans on the homefront are busy telling the world how shite we are!
I would not want Aston Villa to change its name,badge or change the name of Villa Park.If that’s what Red Bull would do if they came in then I will stick with Randy Lerner selling out for money which consequences in loss of identity our history might well have not happened…..UTV
Sorry lads its a load of bollocks , but I would of been open to the idea if it meant we might of had a chance of winning the league or repeating our European cup triumph , both of which I can never see happening again in my life time , and I’m only 33 ! How depressing is that lol …….bet there’s not many out there that would disagree tho !
I was near enough born Villa. It was pumped into me as a kid.
Apart from a couple of years where I had an abberation and put my young kids first, the Villa have pretty much consistently been the most important thing in my life.
If RB were to come in and try to remove all our heritage, club strip and ground name, I’d probably dump the club tomorrow.
Christ, supporting the name is what makes me a Villa fan.
I do not support RB, full stop.
As for comparisons with Chelsea and Manc, even they haven’t tried to get rid of their heritage and tradition, so I don’t see how you can make comparisons.
It’s interesting to see that only Cardiff and Hull have tried this sort of stuff.
And my opinion says it’ll achieve nothing.
They’re relatively small clubs and will always be, so why risk alienating fans?
I’ve a right bee in my bonnet over the thought of this 🙂
But no, sod that, I’d rather we kept Lerner than some faceless outfit that would invest majorly and then pull the plug worse than Lerner, should it fail.
I just can’t believe you put your kids before villa badger :-). Agree about the name change that us the thing that would bother me most and like u say we support villa not RB. If they change name we may as support utd as it will be a different club altogether. As long as we stay claret and blue at home and keep our name then I’m not bothered.
I am surprised how easily some so-called fans would sell their soul to the first who comes along with a big cheque book. Loosing name, changing colours and renaming our famous stadium? Would never ever tolerate this!!
Nobody would change this without creating chaos with the majority of fans. How can any decent fan only think about such a scenario.
I have a little inside knowledge about RB – only a little bit. In Austria, RB took over a traditional club of Austria Salzburg and changed that in RB Salzburg. Its the home town of the company and their owner is living nearby, so it was planned to push the whole football city. But the storm of angry Austria Salzburg fans was horrendous. Even its now years ago, the anger is still there. I think RB learnt from it. In Germany, they went a new, totally different way in taking over a 5 or 6 division team and bringing them through the leagues. Atm they are playing in 3rd tier with a good chance to get into 2nd division. And that´s more the philosophy of RB – they don´t expect the fast success, they are creating a proper platform for success and see that as a long term project.
So, even if RB would consider a takeover I can´t see a change of everything. That would create a lot of hate not only with Villa fans but also with a lot of fans who love the tradition of the English game and that´s a lot of people even in other clubs and other countries. That could reduce their sales and in the end that’s the purpose of any marketing activities.
I see no truth in these rumours but if it would happen, I wouldn´t expect too much changes in terms of colour, stadium names and so on. But for the record: a certain Gerard Houllier is the No1 within Red Bull in their world-wide football activities.
Interesting joty. IMO if it did happen they would have to make us into a great team if we have to sell them our soul. If we have to change name etc and still be where we are now then I’d rather stick with Lerner tbh.
Good points ooah Man city.Man u, Chelsea all the big clubs played in big tournaments in the summer where did we go yeah fuckin Germany ,as if anyone is gonna be arsed about us in Germany ffs
Exactly though we did play at the mighty Walsall as well lol. About our level. This is the problem we do nothing commercially to promote ourselves globally like utd etc
The Premier League would never allow a commercial name change or permit a change of teams home colours for obvious commercial reasons.
If some mug (with wings!) wants to pay £20m to rename VP the ‘Red Bull Lions Stadium’ and we get 2 x quality £10m players every summer on top of our normal player budget, then thank you very much!!!!
I will still get in a taxi and say ‘take me to Villa Park please driver’ !!!!
Even better if they pay £5m a season for our boys to train at ‘Torro Rosso Heath’ !!!!
There are much worse owners out there – Would you rather be lodging in Northampton for our Home games? (or ground-sharing at Bescot in League 1?)
Agree mate I want a successful villa and if we have to sell our soul then so be it as long as they are making us in to CL material that is.
Not quite our soul mate steady on!!!
…however we have fallen well behind the big boys in terms of revenue and we may continue to fall if the best sponsorship we can get is an online betting website based in the Philippines which no one in England has ever heard of. Nothing wrong with that but Manchester United’s training kit (sponsored by DHL) probably earns 5 times more FOR A TRAINING KIT!!!
So they can call our ground what they like if it means we are further up the division and challenging the top 4 again (yeah right I can dream!), it will always be Villa Park to me.
Anyway we played in Perry Barr when we were first formed so it’s not like we are that attached to the name ‘Villa Park’ !!!!! 🙂 it’s only been 116 years!
I’m sure Sir William McGregor from the big Holte End in the sky wouldn’t mind it neither if it meant his beloved AV could get among the elite again……
As long as it’s not the Wonga Stadium or Kit Kat Crescent we will be fine!!
I believe we are not for sale unless a stupid offer comes in as I have a feeling Lerner might roll the dice again in a couple of years before he’s done with us or he will transfer the club to one of his sons to come in with fresh ideas about running the club……
Iscariot FC? And how about a new motto – ‘Thirty Pieces Of Silver’?
Lol
Oohah these Fair Play regs, aren’t they being challenged in the European Courts?
Thirty pieces of silver is still silverware in my book !!!!!!
In fact I sold my granny for 6 just last week 🙂
Yeah, I was ripped off. She is only worth 4 max 🙂
What would be the point for them? Profit yes, but as soon as we draw 0-0 on a wet Wednesday, the loud minority will be on there backs to sell to someone with ambition or invest even more The Red Bull brand is about one thing; PROFIT. The couldn’t give a flying fuck who we are as fans or our club, This would be a disaster. Despite the change of name, stadium name etc.., did you ever think what they’d do to our, relatively cheaper ticket prices. They’d price most of us out of supporting OUR club. Or do some of you have the cash for that. It wouldn’t be another 10000 plastic fans to fill the stadium, it would be 50000 of them because the rest of us wouldn’t be able to afford to go. The price of a shirt would sky rocket even more. We wouldn’t be a 2nd city club anymore because no-one in the 2nd city could afford to go or support us. Just another rich boys play thing with no history or passion. Plus, Red Bull still don’t have as much money as Man City or Chelski. Plus the 6 other football teams they run (who’d want the same investment), the F1 team (F1 makes the money spent in the premier league look like penny sweets, can’t be cheap), the fact the drink isn’t doing all that well and the other hundreds of action and extreme sports the contribute too(which is massive business in the US and Asia). It couldn’t have been cheap to pay for someone to jump from the edge of space.
I mean really. Forethought is not exactly some of yours strong point is it. The chance of maybe winning a trophy a year for 130 odd years of history and tradition. A name thats been part of the English football landscape since the start, The day the football died.
You may be right but I can’t see it happening anyway but if it did iv no problem with them charging more I for one would pay more money to watch a successful team. It’s what interest free credit cards are for 🙂
We don’t need any of this, all we need is Lerner to give Lambert a kitty of 50m and he would do the rest. Plus this is a non starter of a story anyway.
Lerner to give lamberk £50m! Can you see that pig flying over your house Adam !,